The September 12, 2016, meeting was attendance at the DeForest Area Library candidates’ forum. Eight members were in attendance. John submitted this letter to the editor. Let it suffice for meeting notes.

Letter to the Editor

DeForest Times-Tribune

September 16, 2016

Dear Editor:

George Ferriter, Jordan Turner, and Dianne Hesselbein are all candidates for one of three Wisconsin Assembly Districts that serve DeForest and Windsor. George Ferriter is the challenger in Assembly District 42. Jordan Turner is the challenger in District 37. Dianne Hesselbein is the incumbent Assembly Representative in the 79th District running for re-election. All three appeared at the DeForest Area Public Library’s candidates’ forum on September 12th, along with Karen McKim and Scott McDonell, the two candidates for Dane County Clerk. This was one of the most informative candidates’ forums I have ever attended. Thank you, Library staff, for initiating the forum, and thank you, Chamber of Commerce, for emceeing. Brad Schroeder, acting on behalf of the Chamber, did an excellent job of asking the questions in a fair and orderly fashion. A special thanks to Brad for his services.

George Ferriter spoke to issues of the degradation of representative government we are seeing in Wisconsin. He also spoke about veterans’ affairs, transportation and roads, water conservation, and the need for the state to adequately fund K through 12 education. George is a Democrat. He regretted that his Republican opponent in District 42 did not attend. Had his opponent been there, they could have had an exchange on these subjects that would have benefitted the audience. George Ferriter said, “It’s difficult to have a fencing match with no opponent.”

Jordan Turner spoke to issues involving the heroin epidemic engulfing the nation and his district. It is the “number one problem our state is facing,” he said. He hopes we can construct some new approaches to the problem, besides just law enforcement. He is concerned about crumbling infrastructure, too, and the exploding cost of post high school education. “I would really like to see college free for the first two years.”

Dianne Hesselbein spoke to a multitude of issues she is involved in now in the Assembly: nonpartisan redistricting, colleges and universities, the disaster that is voucher schools, oil pipelines that run the length of Wisconsin, and the details she is learning about police work, including her attendance at the Middleton Citizens Police Academy.

The elephant in the room was the absence of the three Republican candidates for those three Assembly districts. Everybody noticed. We’ve been informed, too, that no Republican candidate intends to show up at the Columbus School Board’s candidates’ forum on October 10th either. What are they shy about? Is this a pattern? Is it Republican policy not to attend public forums? Why? Let’s surprise them and all of us vote Democratic in the November 8th election.